


The Deal (Or How I Got Into Ed Sheeran's Life)

by LaraOrAva



Category: Ed Sheeran (Musician)
Genre: All Characters Are Are a Pop Reference Somehow, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Build, Try And Figure It Out, other characters to come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-24 01:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6136326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaraOrAva/pseuds/LaraOrAva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I marched into the room and almost bumped into Ava. I stepped aside, looking at her, trying to make sense of why she had stopped so suddenly. She was staring ahead and looked like she had seen a ghost. I searched for the other person in the room and immediately understood why she was so nervous.<br/>The other person was Ed Sheeran.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One (or How The Whole Thing Started)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fic, so, please, kudos and comment if you like it :)  
> I've merged the chapters as I thought this would make more sense... I hope you all enjoy it!

Thin rain was pouring insistently on the windshield. The wiper had had no break since I left my building a few blocks ago. The noise the water made on the car bodywork was so addictive it was almost music and I was tagging my fingers on the panel behind the wheel along with it. I was so tired and distracted, I made a wrong turn and the short drive had now gotten a little longer.

“Damn it.”

I had just finished moving into my new apartment the night before and I was close to collapsing on the steering wheel and drool all over it. Ava and Eric, two of my best friends in the city, had helped me carry in the heavy stuff until about three in the afternoon, but it took me a lot more time to put it all on place and get rid of all the boxes. My apartment wasn't even close to what I wanted it to be yet, but it had been a long time goal of mine to buy my own place and I could add small changes to it over the time.

Suddenly, I realized I was in Ava’s street already. I came here so often that the drive was almost automatic to me. She lived at the end of the street, in a very imposing, two story, light grey house with a red front door framed by a white porch that lended a colonial style to it. The car went up the driveway, bumpy and slippery because both of the rocks and the rain. The garage door slowly started to go up and I could see Ava’s Ariel onesie showing up behind it. I drove in, turned the car off and got out while the door was still closing.

“Thank God you have a garage. I was not in the mood to get wet.” I got out of the car in my Perry the Platypus onesie and white converse shoes.

“I cheated!” Ava looked too excited saying that, there had to be some mistake.

“YOU CHEATED ON ERIC?” My heart skipped a beat. In my head I was already making a plan to keep them both in my life somehow. I was NOT going to choose.

“Wait, what? No! OH NO, how could you think that?” She looked offended.

“Holy crap, Ava! Not a nice way to greet people!” I put one hand on my knee and the other one on my heart and curled up over my belly to breathe. “You can’t just say things like that! For a second I saw your future and it was not pretty. You can’t do that to Eric, please don’t ever do that to him.”

“Lara, I have not cheated on him. You know today I had to make him drive to work? He wanted to bike there… In the pouring rain. The guy is insane.” She was clearly finding the whole thing amusing. I was still holding my heart with one hand. Slowly I started to walk towards the kitchen to get some water.

“What do you mean you cheated then?” I asked getting my water bottle from the fridge and taking a long gulp from it. 

Ava’s house was like my own: I had a water bottle, a room, clothes, underwear, toothbrush, some especial food and a lot of other things. They had that kind of stuff in my house too, which was weird, considering we lived so close to each other.

“Oh yeah, I cheated our lazy day!” It was Monday, but ever since we got our company up and running we came up with lazy day once a month to do nothing.

Lazy days had three rules: 1. it had to be on a week day, 2. it had to be just the two of us, 3. we couldn’t do anything work-related (or any productive chores). We randomly picked a day (normally when we were too tired to go to work, but still could ditch it without compromising the due date of a project) and just stayed at home (usually Ava’s) in our onesies. It started out being our tradition, but eventually it progressed to the rest of the company too, so now each team member had the right to one lazy day a month, like we did, taken in turns.

“Oh my God, that’s even worse!” Now I was offended.

“I know, but listen to this” She was already unlocking her phone and getting to the mail app. “Someone sent us an email through the website form. It doesn’t have a proper name or company, just says that he’s been following our work through social media and friends and that he can’t disclose much in writing. Also requests a meeting tomorrow, since he’s in town for the week. It just came in earlier this morning.”

“Mysterious.”

“I know! So very Christian Grey, right? I know this could be a scam, but we can set up the meeting in our office, with security and all of our team in place and just listen to what he has to say. If he suggests somewhere else or doesn’t meet our expectations, he’s out.” She looked at me holding the phone, her hands in place to type the response.

“Maybe he could be Batman! Set up the meeting” I smiled at her and turned to get the ingredients to make our lazy day dessert.

Ava and I were both from Brazil. We had started our company right off college and she came to Vancouver to pursue her master’s degree. She than met her (now) fiancé Eric and never went back. For a while, the company had two fronts: Brazil and Canada. The Canada front was doing way better than the brazilian one, so it wasn’t long until  I  followed Ava’s footsteps and moved here too. That was three years ago.

That’s why it wasn’t weird we were making ‘brigadeiro’, a brazilian traditional dessert, in the morning. Actually it was a little weird, because it’s a dessert and people don’t normally eat it in the morning, but we liked it cold, so we made it as soon as we could to let it cool down. For breakfast we just ate regular pancakes with ‘brigadeiro’ pan scrapings as a topping.

 

***

“Ok, let’s do this!” I jumped into the living room and threw myself on the sofa where Ava already was.

We had a routine for lazy day and everything was already set up: crazy amount of food at the center table, current tv show was on, Ava’s legs to one side of the couch, mine to the other and we were both leaned against the pile of pillows that were laying in the middle. And we stayed like that for the rest of the day.

I think we’ve slept for most part of it, actually. We missed lunch, that’s for sure. When Eric got home, at about five p.m., I was kind of awake and my whole body was aching. I don’t think I had moved a lot during the day, but that was kinda the whole point of lazy day. 

“Are you girls hungry?” Eric asked.

“Yeeeees” We sort of begged.

He got a pizza out of the freezer, put it in the oven, then went inside to freshen up. I propped on my elbows to take a peek at Ava, she was fighting to stay awake too.

“Did you pay any attention to the show?” I asked.

“Nah, we’ll have to watch it again.” She didn’t even bother looking up.

The oven beeped. Eric didn’t cook well, but his specialty was to ‘spice frozen things up’. In a few minutes we had a different pizza from the box sitting in the table in front of us. He had added feta cheese, broccoli, mushroom and cayenne pepper to it. In another few minutes, the plate was empty and everyone was taking deep breaths.

“That was really good!” I told him.

“Better than that shrimp one you made last week.” Ava completed.

“I don’t know… maybe it was a tie. I have to go, guys! But I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“As always, she gets the food and leaves” Eric joked.

“Always!” I smiled as I took my plate to the washing machine and headed to the garage, still wearing my onesies.

I hopped into the car and, as I waited for the door to open, I connected my phone to the car radio via bluetooth to chose a song. The rain was still pouring down hard and I needed something that was not gonna make me sleepy, so I choose ‘ _ My House _ ’, by Florida.

Singing my lungs out, I slowly made my way home. The drive was short, but the music was fun and I wanted to listen to it to the end. By the time the song was getting to it’s conclusion I got to my house (ha!) and parked the car at the garage.

The new apartment was in a ten story building with a different architecture to it. I had chosen it because of the penthouse, which wasn’t too big it would be way out of my budget, but it still had enough room for me and my dog to be comfortable in. Also, the building had a garage, which was a huge plus.

The elevator door beeped and opened and I could already hear the tap-tap-tap of the paws coming to greet me by the door. I turned the key and there was my three legged dog, Tripod, happily wagging his tail, his gigantic ears down as if he just woke up.

Flicking the light switch on the wall, I stepped inside, placed my bag on the sideboard near the door and squatted down to scratch behind his ears.

I went to the kitchen to get a bottle of water and go straight to my room to get into bed. I was still exhausted. My phone buzzed and at the same time I heard the dog food falling into the plate and I instantly knew the smart feeder I got for Tripod was working just fine. I stretched my head out to look over to the smaller room at the back, which I had turned into a laundry room. It was also Tripod’s corner, with his feeder, that held both water and food, a potty grass mat, which he rarely used since I tried to walk him two times a day, and his leash, that was hanging really low so he could grab it himself. 

I brushed my teeth, shut the blinds and turned the air conditioning on, despite the rain and the chilly breeze, to minimize the contact with the outside world. I made into bed before ten p.m. and it still felt like I had just been asleep for two minutes when the alarm buzzed almost ten hours later.

I tucked my hand under the pillow to look for my phone and slid the finger through the screen to stop the annoying sound without even opening my eyes. The blinds made the room dark and the king size bed was too comfortable to make me want to start the day, so I laid there for a second, mentally going over my to-do list, deliberating which item I should ditch just to stay in bed a little longer. Deciding not to put off anymore, I stretched and kicked the blankets to the side to get up once and for all. Tripod sensed my movements and rose to do his little dog yoga thing.

My morning routine was simple: get up, open the blinds, bathroom, make some sort of green smoothie, change and exercise. Usually, Ava and I went to a bootcamp at the Stanley Park close by, but it was pouring rain still and that meant class was cancelled. Instead, I just went up and down the building stairs with Tripod, stopping here and there to do some squats, pushups and situps too.

After the one hour workout, I took a shower, got dressed, put my makeup on, got everything I needed to leave the house for the day, cooked and ate a proper breakfast and checked my phone. There was an excited message from Ava saying the meeting was confirmed today at three p.m. so I better bring my cape. Dear Lord.

The office was close and I hopped into my car at about nine o’clock, hoping to get there a little early to get a bunch of things done before the day really started. Capivara & Co was a transmedia marketing company. Our latest project was along a game company for the launch of a video game and it has been putting up a big challenge, but has also been really fun. We tried to diversify our portfolio the best way we could. We’ve also worked with industries like movies, cosmetics, pet care and automotive. When we got into business, even back in Brazil, we thought we were going to excel working with the entertainment industry only, but we soon found out that we actually excel working with companies that are open to our style, which, let’s just say, is not very traditional.

Cap&Co HQ was located in a small modern house in British Columbia. It was supposed to be residential, but we bought it to revert into a corporate office since we realized most of our team (including Ava and me) didn’t like traditional working hours and the regular office buildings didn’t stay open past them. We sat down as a group, discussed the problem and the options, decided that an owned home plus a security plan was the best solution and Ava and I began looking for it. We fell in love for this one and now our work have come long ways and the team is a lot happier.

The house used to have a garage, but we converted that into a studio, so I parked the car in front of the path leading to the front door and grabbed my big yellow umbrella prepared to run for my life. Water splashed everywhere, but I had my hunter boots on, so my pants remained dry. I got to the porch, took the hunter boots off and left them along with the open umbrella in a corner.

The house wasn’t prepared to be corporate when we got to it, but it was really close to what we wanted. We still had to make a few adjustments. The exterior architecture had a Japanese vibe to it, with wood panels, raw and with lighter and darker shades of grey all over. It had big windows, a small front yard with a garden and the garage door to the left. When you walked inside, the Japanese vibe was taken out by an open space with a staircase leading to the second floor, right in the foreground. Before we remodeled, upstairs was a regular house, with four bedrooms. Now it’s an open space with some individuals desks aligned and two big round desks in the corners. To the the back of this space, right in the middle of the room, there’s Ava’s and my own office surrounded with glass walls and doors. On the first floor, below the staircase, there was what we call the chilling room, with sofas, TV, video games and a pool table. To the left of it there was the kitchen and the hall the lead to the meeting room. There even was a backyard with a retractable canopy, that protected it from the rain, and an outdoor fireplace which was, for everyone, the best place of the house, unanimously.

The house was empty, so I just went straight to my office, put on the regular boots I brought and went downstairs to get coffee. Ava came through the door when I was pressing the machine button. She was soaking wet.

“She never learns.” I laughed.

“I forgot my umbrella!” She ran to the kitchen sink to squeeze her hair in it.

“I know.”

***

The day went normal. Ava, the creative team, social media squad and I were in a meeting all morning discussing the game account strategy until Howie, one of our interns, got in for his shift and we all realized it was lunchtime already. We had that other meeting at three, so we ordered food.

The game was being animated based on a female character, which was going to be Cara Delevingne. Our creative team went to the studio a few times to meet the animators, the producers, Cara and the executives that hired us and gathered as much information they could so we understand the branding of the game and start outlining a strategy plan. This was our first strategy meeting.

By two o’clock, we had been able to finish a few trays of sushi and progress a lot, so we called it a day. Everyone went to their desks and I went to mine. I answered a few pending emails, a message from my mom and went to the bathroom to freshen up and brush my teeth. Ava was there too. I don’t even know for how long we had been talking when our office secretary, knocked on the door and stuck her head in to say that the mystery guest had arrived. Ava and I looked at each other with mixed feelings of excitement and anticipation.

We each went to our offices where we left the bag with our toothbrush and toiletries, grabbed what we needed, our phones and headed down together, Ava on the lead. I stopped at the kitchen to ask Kris, our savior, to get us some tea or coffee at some point of the meeting. At that time of the day, it was hard to stay awake.

The meeting room was across the hall from the open kitchen and had a big glass wall. We had installed ceiling blinds at that wall and the window on the opposite side in case we had a meeting that needed a dark space. I glanced at it when I was walking by, but the blinds were closed, which was no help to diminish my curiosity about our Batman client.

I marched into the room and almost bumped into Ava. I stepped aside, looking at her, trying to make sense of why she had stopped so suddenly. She was staring ahead and looked like she had seen a ghost. I searched for the other person in the room and immediately understood why she was so nervous.

The other person was Ed Sheeran.


	2. Chapter Two (or The Most Surreal Business Meeting Ever)

Ed was seating across the table with his elbows on the wooden top and his hands crossed. He was wearing a blue jeans shirt, black pants and looking up through his glued-to-his-forehead hair, wet from the rain. Ava and I were both still in the same place staring at him unbelievingly. He looked from one to the other, waiting. I was the first to wake up from the trance. Don’t get me wrong, I still could not believe what I was seeing, it’s just that I also could not stay put with my jaw dropped to the ground. It was a business meeting afterall.

In my best professional walk, I walked up to him and extended my hand to introduce myself. I had no idea how he had gotten to us. We’d had big corporations along our journey, but never ever we had a famous face seating here in our very office. Sure we had worked with famous people before, but they had always been part of the project, not the one who hired our services. I didn’t even know they did that themselves. How the hell did he find us?

“Hello, I’m Lara, the CEO.” I was standing in front of Ed Sheeran, a famous international artist, on a business meeting that could make or break my company and all I could think about was how the first sentence I had said to him was a rhyme.

I slightly shook my head, let go of his hand and took a seat at the other side of the table closer to the glass wall. Ava was still standing up by the door. She was staring at me with that face she did when unsure whether she was supposed to laugh or cry. I didn’t know if she had introduced herself yet.

“And the crazy one’s Ava, she’s also the CEO, believe it or not.” I smiled. 

He looked at me with a wry smile. He knew what was going on and was finding Ava’s reaction hilarious. At that point something had clicked inside her and she decided to join us.

“Hi, Mr. Sheeran, I mean, Ed, I’m Ava. Big fan. Big, big fan!” She said with her eyes glued on him, shaking his hand in both of hers, holding all of her belongings between her arms and her body.

He was polite and clearly amused. I was suppressing a laugh. This whole situation was surreal.

“She’s gonna want to take a selfie later.” Ava looked at me mad. “What? It’s true!” 

“It’s alright, I was just going to ask the same thing.” Ed looked from her to me, a penetrating, yet funny look. And there was the wry smile. Like he knew something I didn’t. 

“So, Ed, why are you here?” I leaned against the back of my chair with my hands resting lightly on my lap.

Ed inclined ever further, put his weight on his elbows, and adjusted himself on his seat.

“In August 2015 I’ve launched my own record label, Gingerbread Man Records, and as of last month we’re no longer a subsidiary of Warner Music UK. We’ve been on our own since then and I wanna do the best I can for the artists we already have and the ones we are still looking forward to sign, just don’t know how. So, I guess I need help. Yeah.” His hand went everywhere as he spoke and he looked from them to Ava to me. 

“Oh, I’ve heard of the Gingerbread Man.” Ava told him. “Why have you chosen us, though? I mean, you didn’t come all the way to Canada just to ask us for help, did you?”

He chuckled and reclined in his chair.

“No. I’m a bit curious and since the label was just a thought I started following creative marketing cases and kept bumping into your company. Now that I really needed it I reckoned I’d give it a shot. Actually, yesterday after I sent that email, I was texting a friend who was with Cara and she told me you were involved in a project she was on. That was plus.” He finished. I took a quick look at Ava and we didn’t need to speak to know what each other thoughts were about it, so I took the lead. I placed my palms on the table and rolled my chair backward a little to make room to cross my legs. 

“First of, thank you for the recognition, it means a lot to us, in particular because we try to innovate constantly and not a lot of companies, or people for that matter, identify with that. Secondly, it would be a pleasure working with you, specially being followers of your work ourselves.” I smiled at him with honesty. “Now, normally do a briefing meeting with our creative team and the client to better understand about his idea and the project itself, then we develop a presentation with our input and how we plan to address it, present it and discuss it with the client. At a regular pace, this takes a few weeks. We have a habit of sleeping on ideas and exchanging a lot between us to present the best version to the client. I understood from your email that you’re only here for the week, right?” I waited for his answer. 

“Right.”

“Ok.” I looked to Ava again. She was usually the one ahead of the client services, but she gave me a small nod and I kept going. “We’re gonna email you some questions that are going to help us have a better idea of what you want going into the briefing meeting. It would be best if you could answer before coming in, but we understand if you don’t have the time. The main thing is the meeting itself, so if you could come by tomorrow, that would give us one and a half days to develop the presentation and we could pitch it to you on Friday. This way, I think we could manage to get it all done this week. How does it sound?”

“I can be free tomorrow afternoon.” He nodded seriously.

“That would be perfect. We’ll arrange for our team to be free as well. Around three?” Ava asked him.

“Sounds good” He smiled.

“What about Friday?” She asked him.

“I’ll make myself free, but can I get back to you on the time?”

“Sure, no problem.” Now Ava was smiling.

He smiled back. She blushed furiously. I chuckled and they both looked at me.

“Well, call us when you have the answer or if you have any doubts at all.” I was about to get up when the door opened and Kris got in carrying a coffee cart.

“Sorry to interrupt, but does anyone want tea or coffee?” She strolled the cart around the room with no ceremony at all. “I know you do!” She pretended to whisper and put a tea mug in front of me with a  _ clunk _ .

Someday Kris noticed we liked drinking tea and started making it plus coffee every afternoon without us even asking. She walked around the office offering it to those who wanted some. She also got fruits and snacks from the local market and arranged it on the cart every time we had meetings or special occasions. She was awesome. Except for the fact that she had the pleasure of bringing us a different mug every day so we could have a laugh. Or, depending on the occasion, she could have a laugh alone. I recognized the logo at the back of the one she put in front of me and knew already what this one said.

Ed looked down at it and took his time reading. It said ‘ _ I’m 99.9% sure I’m a Disney princess* (*the 0.1% is that I haven’t met a bird yet that can talk to me) _ ’. Then he looked up at me and smiled a playful smile. He couldn’t help himself, he was a flirty little thing. Maybe it was part of his british charm.

“True story” I raised the mug in a toast, then to my mouth and smiled behind it. Two can play this game.

Kris had put Ava’s mug in front of her too and was heading towards Ed so he could choose what he wanted to drink. He chose his tea of preference while Kris poured boiling water in a mug for him. We weren’t a traditional company, so he got a ‘ _ Tea keeps me going until it is acceptable to drink wine _ ’ mug. 

He laughed and looked at her. “Am I that transparent?” She smiled right back.

“She’s good. Never brought a single mug wrong” I proudly told him. Her face was red, but it was glowing.

“That’s quite an accomplishment indeed” Ed agreed.

He looked at Ava’s mug that said ‘ _ I survived another meeting that should have been an email _ ’ and almost spat his tea all over the table. He swallowed, threw his head back and laughed heartily but short. 

“Oh man. Where are you getting this stuff from?” He was still smiling and you could hear it in his voice. 

The question was directed to no one in particular, but I was proud of this, so I got up, grabbed my mug and told him to follow me. Throwing back a glance, I saw Ava and Kris smiling at each other as we left the room.

 

***

“You have a mug collection?” Ed was looking amused from the mug wall to me. The wall was located in the far right of the open kitchen. It went from the ceiling to the floor and it was about a meter wide. It was like a bookshelf of mugs.

“Yes. Yes, we do” I was dead serious, but was finding it funny on the inside. He was studying each cup avidly and was kind of intrigued by why a company would have a mug collection, I could tell.

“How many?” Now he looked overwhelmed. He got one hand in his pocket and the other one was holding his tea mug. 

“102 and counting” It was  fascinating to see his expressions change. He hold so many of them and was crystal clear when showing it.

“Why mugs?” He asked.

“My mom started collecting them, actually. I guess I don’t really know why, but every time she travelled, she brought a new one home and I started to get them as a gift for her. When I moved here, I just kept doing it. I brought a few to work, so we didn’t have to use paper cups, you know, to be green and all, and everyone started getting all the funny ones they saw. And we started a collection together.” I looked at him. He was looking up, his head thrown back, mouth open and eyes going from left to right. 

“I reckon you’re the only company to ever start a collection together.” 

“I think you might be right.” I smiled at the wall. I was damn proud of it. 

We stood there in a comfortable silence looking at the wall and sipping our tea for maybe a minute more. We each were lost in our thoughts.

When I finished my tea, I came back to reality. “Wanna see the rest of the house?” I turned to face him.

He looked at his watch. “Love to, but I have to go. Tomorrow, though?” He asked, already putting his mug in the sink and walking towards the door. I did the same and followed him.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked when we got by the front door. t was a rhetorical question and I went on without waiting for the answer. “I understand this has been last minute and all, but why did you come alone? I mean, don’t the record label have some kind of executive or something?” I opened the door, holding it for him, the rain making loud noises outside.

“It used to have, yeah. Warner Music was ahead of this kind of decision, but since we parted it just made sense for me to take the lead.” His flamboyant hair was flying everywhere with the cold breeze coming from outside.

“So if we end up working together... besides us, you’re just gonna do this by yourself?”

“Well, I prefer to be in control of my business. You know, like Beyoncé.” He gave me a crooked smile and stepped out.

 

***

Sun had just rise when I got into Cap&Co HQ next morning. Ava was already in.

“Couldn’t sleep either, huh?” I threw myself in her office couch and rested my head against the backboard.

“How could I? This is huge, Lara.” She leaned in her chair . “The golden snitch is right there. It’s right there!” Her hands pointing forward like she could see it. “We need to grab it. It’s just too big to let go.”

“I know.”

My night had been hell. Half of it was spent online trying to have a better idea of who Ed was. The other half was spent freaking out about the enormity of it all. Working with Ed Sheeran could take Cap&Co to a whole new level. Butterflies and fear were part of the package.

As I was talking to Ava, a rush of certainty all of a sudden hit me and I sat up straight.

“You know what? I don’t really know Ed, but I spent the whole night studying him and he seems to be real smart. He saw something in our work that matched the way he thinks, that’s a fact. All we have to do is what we’ve been doing for the past years and the odds are the account is ours.” I got up, walked to her and pressed the palm of my hands on her desk. “I’m pretty sure he knows what he’s giving us here, Ava, he’s not stupid. I think he wanna see what we’re going to do with his idea just as much as we wanna see if we’re going to get this. And we both know if someone can make this happen it’s us.”

“Okay.” She processed it slowly, then all at once. “So here’s what we’re going to do: you’re gonna get us some coffee while I get all the info I can and when you get back, we’ll jump on it.” She was suddenly by my side and had a sparkle in her eyes. I could see she was fired up about this.

“Fuck yeah! I knew we were partners for a reason.” We high fived and then hugged tight.

“We’re fucking doing this.”

 

***

Brewing our own coffee at this kind of occasion seemed too mundane, so I grabbed my bag and headed out to get breakfast. The day was hazy and white, but the rain had given the city a break, at least for a while, which gave me a perfect excuse to walk. The sidewalk still had a few puddles and I had to watch my steps or I would get my flats wet. Thankfully, Starbucks was just around the corner.

I knew the menu by heart and after I ordered I was out in a flash. The problem was I bought a ton of food and it wasn’t easy trying to walk back juggling all the paper bags and still keep an eye on the ground. It was even harder to press the bell (there was just no way I could’ve opened the door), but I managed to do so with the tip of the cardboard drink holder and in a few seconds Ava was helping me carry everything to the meeting room.

“Is there any red velvet cake?” She asked, walking down the hall.

“Yes.”

“Cheese danish?”

“Yes.”

“Good, I’m starving!”

“I don’t even know why you bother asking, I always get the same thing!” I chuckled and put my share of the bags on top of the wooden table. “Is anyone in yet?”

“Just us.” She had put  the bags down too and was now peeking inside.

I went to the kitchen to get plates and napkins and when I got back, she had open every paper cup to find her chestnut praline mocha and was already drinking it with her cheese danish.

“Save some for the guys.” I laid the plates and the napkins at the table and sat down to find myself some food. I bought so many things I liked it was like looking at the Starbucks menu all over again.

“Gonna be cold, they won’t want it” She swallowed up.

Ava took a napkin to clean her hands, got up and walked to the sideboard that stood in the middle of the back wall behind her. I hadn’t notice before, but Ava had prepared the room in such little time. The sideboard was full of papers marked with post-its, but I couldn’t see the details from where I was standing. There was a little stationery station by the side of the wooden table with more post its, staples, sharpies, whiteboard pens and paper clips. 

“Ok, I printed everything I found online about Ed that I think would be relevant for us and I marked it with different post-it colours. Yellow for personal, orange for Gingerbread Man Records, green for business-like and blue for other topics.” She went through each one while explaining. “I also got us his movie and the MTV documentary.” She pointed to the TV, which was now off, but I assumed there was a flash drive connected there somewhere.

A song suddenly started playing and I almost spit the coffee I had just sipped everywhere. “Jesus, Ava. What the hell!”

“We’re also listening to every song he has ever released, like ever.” She turned around and I could see the wireless speaker’s tiny remote in her hand 

“Is that Ed?” I had never heard that song. “Sounds like a child.”

“He was like 15, it’s from his first album. The songs are shuffling, but the albums are in order. We’re going to listen from first ‘till last, so buckle up.” She explained.

“Sounds good.”

The team got in one by one and, besides having breakfast with us, started to help on the research. We had set a task force to finish everything by lunch so we would be able to discuss it before Ed got there. The night before Ava had responded the email form he had sent us with some crucial questions that would give us a better idea of his vision for this project and both of our contacts, just so he had it. We got his reply at about 10 a.m. and added to the info we had gotten on him. By eleven o’clock, we, as a team, had watched ‘ _ Jumpers for Goalposts _ ’, the MTV documentary, a selection of his best interviews and listened to almost every song he had released. 

The glass wall that separated the room from the open kitchen had it’s blinds open and brainstorming writing all over it. We had divided it in three columns: project ideas, Ed and Gingerbread Man Records. The ‘Project Ideas’ column was the smallest one, since we weren’t focusing on it too much yet. ‘Gingerbread Man’ had a few words that we thought described how the label wanted to be branded, some words that we thought could empower it and some particularities about it. The column named ‘Ed’ was the biggest one, with all of the words we thought related with his personal brand and how he presented himself to the world. The goal with the wall was to better visualize the client so we could set the tone for the strategy we were going to create next.

 

***

Ava and I were both responsible for this account, which almost never happened. Usually she was ahead of the account/client and creative services, while I was ahead of the marketing and strategy services. For this one in particular, we decided we both should be involved in the process as a whole (and let’s be honest, we both wanted to work along Ed as much as possible).

The team felt the magnitude of it when we declared both of us would be managing the account and I think this helped for the general excitement. I’ve never seen the team so excited as that day. There was an electricity in the air and it felt like christmas morning on Cap&Co HQ. I was almost expecting Santa to arrive anytime in a sleigh pulled by a bunch of reindeers. We even had cookies, in the case he actually showed up.

People couldn't stop smiling and whispering and there wasn’t a single soul upstairs. The Head of Creation and Head of Strategy were the only ones beside Ava and I that were participating on the meeting, but around three p.m., everyone decided to grab some coffee, tea or whatever just to see Ed come through the door. The first day he came by it was so quick no one had seen him. Today they made their goals to at least take a peek. We had had a conversation with the team about office manners, specially before we closed the deal, and I was hoping they would follow through. I’m sure he was used to it, but it was business and we needed to be professional.

When the bell rang, silence fell in the house. Through the corner of my eye I saw arms being clenched by colleagues, heads being stretched out and mouths being covered by hands. I looked at Ava who was jumping up and down with a huge grin on her face. I chuckled and walked to the door to greet him. Our office secretary had already opened the door. 

“Welcome back!” I smiled. “Please don’t mind the weird slow motion background scene as you walk. We told them not to be weird, but I guess that just fired them up.”

He laughed. “Oh, that’s alright, I’m used to it.” He wasn’t being condescending, he was simply laying the fact.

“We thought we’d do the meeting on the backyard table, what do you think?” I was already conducting him there.

“Oh, brilliant! I could certainly use some time outside. Too many hotel rooms, you see…”

“This is the chilling room, very well exemplified right now by every team member on the house.” I gestured widely.

“Hi” He said simply.

It was like a bomb went off. The silence broke as a festival of ‘ _ hi’s _ ’ emerged, smiles being shot everywhere, people standing up and forming a corridor on each side of us as we walked eagering for something else to happen.

“For crying out loud guys, it’s not the Pope, we don’t need escort.” We had reached the sliding doors that lead to the patio and Ed crossed them first. I turned to face the inside of the house. “Okay, everyone back to work. He promised to take an Oscar selfie later.” I said, clapping my hands.

I closed the doors and pulled my phone from my pocket to get into the automation system app and close the blinds. Only when they reached the ground the team inside started to move back to their desks.

“Sorry about that. Everyone was super excited to see you, we tried to do damage control beforehand, but didn’t work very well as you can see.” Ava was saying as I sat down beside her. 

“All good. I don’t mind it at all, and I do wanna take an Oscar selfie with everyone later.” His eyes gazing upon the wooden bar behind Ava and I that Kris was finishing filling with food and beverages.

“Oh yeah, Kris went nuts and got us enough food to feed a small country, so… can I get you anything? Never tell her what you like the most or she will stack up the house with it.”

“Earl grey tea would be great,” he stretched his head to the side and look to Kris, “and I love booze, by the way.” He completed with a playful smile.   
“That’s my favourite too!” Ava mentioned. “The tea, I mean.” She poured some hot water in a mug from our collection. It was from a Game of Thrones bundle, it had the silhouette of a white wolf’s head and its red eyes and the word ‘Ghost’ would only appear when it had some hot beverage inside. Of course, she picked that one for him on purpose.

As she put the tea in front of him, he started the business talk. “So, I have not given you many details really, but I understand you’re familiar with my new record label, Gingerbread Man?”

We all nodded.

“Alright, so the goal is to work with running up artists. I like to discover new music and collaborate with new talents. I’ve been there, I know how hard it is to find support and launch a career. So what I would like is to brand my label in a way it would appear reliable enough while maintaining that playful, light identit, with the name and all.”

“Sure. Well, do you have any preferred genre you like to work with?” Ava asked him.

“Not really, I like to keep my options open.”

“That’s great, the fact that you’re open gives everybody more room to work with.”

“Exactly. I would like to develop this brand in a more practical way, though. And that’s why I reached out to you.”

“Thank you again for coming to us. We actually had a brainstorming session with our creative director and our head of strategy here,” she gestured towards the two man on her right side, “just to try and find patterns or values that we thought you would appreciate imprinting to your brand. We listened to all of your albums…”

“Oh dear…”

“... and based on your lyrics, we would say being spontaneous is a big part of how you conduct your personal affairs?”   
“Absolutely. I like to make the moves up as I go… I think Taylor would be proud of me for quoting her songs during my meetings now.” He giggled. “I grew up to be more focused and weigh my options better, but I would like to keep that freshness to the brand, yes.”

“Awesome. I have a question. How are the acts chosen?” I asked.

“Well, there are only two right now and both of them I already knew somehow. You can see we don’t really have a choosing process or anything like that. What I do have is good taste, so I try to sign amazing artists that just won’t be signed by other labels.”

“And we know you’re taking a break from social media, but how would you feel about tweeting anything label-related? Maybe record a few videos for the Gingerbread youtube channel and just tweet it to get some buzz going.” I said.

“I think that would be fine.”

“Ok. How do you feel about last minute events?” Ava continued.   
“For a british lad I like to think I’m pretty open to that, why?”

“Because we know that you would only be in town for a couple more days and anything we plan would either require that you come back to town or have the project being executed in two days. I suppose we’re inclined to take the latter?”   
“I can come back, that’s not a problem.”

“And you’re not on tour right now, right?”

“Right. I took a bit of time off not only from social media, but from the music world as well. I’m still doing a few things, like try to get Gingerbread Man going, but I don’t think I will be releasing anything anytime soon.”

The meeting went on for about an hour more. Mostly was Ed telling us his point of view, the vision he had for the label and how he liked things done. When we felt we had asked all the questions we could, we moved to the bar so we could grab a bite.

“So how about that tour you offered?” Ed asked me.

“Oh yeah!” I put my mug down. “Well, this is the patio. Pretty self explanatory, right?” I smiled. “We love to have meetings outside, and sometimes hang out by the bar or the fireplace afterwork. We use it a lot.” I said as we walked inside.

“There’s the kitchen and the mug wall that you already saw yesterday. Over there” I said, pointing across the room, “is the meeting room, where you were yesterday and where we’re going to have our presentation friday.”

“What’s that written on the glass?”

“Oh, remember I told you we listened to all of your albums? We also watched the movie, MTV doc, interviews, read some articles. We did a pretty extensive research and wrote down what we thought were important words to describe you as a brand.” Ava took the lead and explained.

“May I take a look?” He was already walking.

“Yeah, sure.”

We got into the room and the wall seemed magnified. It was weird enough evaluating someone as brand (as opposed to something material), but to have that very person looking through every note you made about them was bizarre. He was basically reading our judgments about his character and, if we had gotten it wrong, that could cost the whole project.

He took his eyes off the glass wall for a moment to search around the room. I frowned, trying to understand what he wanted. Marching to the table at the center, he took the red whiteboard pen, a colour we haven’t used yet, and opened it while marching back. He looked to the wall again and started adding comments here and there. I noticed the words he was adding were consistent to what we already had and I smiled at Ava.

“That’s real good what you’ve got there. I like where it’s going.” He said, putting the pen back on the table.

I relaxed my shoulders. It seemed that we were on the right track.

Ava and I took him upstairs, showed him our offices and he greeted every team member we passed by, getting a lot of shy smiles in return. We showed him the garage studio, which was basically a setting that could be changed around with the camera and lighting equipment placed in front of it. We had a chroma key and a white backdrop, but we preferred to keep things simple and warm as often as we could.

“This is a residential neighborhood, right?” He asked.

“Yeah, we decided a house would be more suitable for us, since we don’t respect regular office hours sometimes. Also, it just fits, you know?” I replied as we walked back to the chilling room. “It’s more like us and we can host a few events without having it look like business network or something.”

“What kind of events?”

“We hold a few barbecues, we watch all kinds of sports together, Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup every year. We throw a few legendary parties as well.” I told him.

“That’s bri-”   
“Oh, and we’re on our 2nd Annual Pool Tournament!” I pointed to the chalkboard near the pool table that had an announcement about the competition with the date ‘May 1st’ on it.

“You’re not serious.” He laughed.

“Dead serious!”

“How does it work?”

“We send an email with the announcement and people can sign up for it on our website. If someone wants be a part of it, but doesn’t wanna play, he can join the drinking pool, which is basically an excuse to get drunk, because you drink either way, winning or losing, what changes is the drink of choice. And if you win the whole bet you get a bottle of whisky.”

“Blimey! How do I get on it?” He asked.

“You’d have to be a client” I smiled.

“It just got a hell of a lot more interesting.” He smiled back.


	3. Chapter Three (or Flawless)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was no beta-reading on this chapter, so please let me know if there's any mistakes!
> 
> Also, this is my favourite chapter so far, hopefully you'll like it too! :)
> 
> x

For the hours we had left, Ava and I were confined in the meeting room, working on the presentation. The creative and strategy teams were in and out constantly to add their inputs, but we did almost all the work. It was fun being so involved on developing a concept once again. We got so caught up in our day-to-day responsibilities that most of the time we just supervised it. But we had founded the company after all and for years these were our daily duties. This was exactly what we were passionate about.

There were reasons why we had chosen each other as business partners as well. We fitted, ideas just flowed and we complemented each other's point of view. When one of us got carried away the other would found a way to make it realistic and doable, instead of just pulling her down. We worked so well together, the interns and a few analysts constantly entered the meeting room just to sit at the back and observe it.

Of course, the project helped. A multitalented superstar hoping to revitalize his record label brand so he could help other artists. By itself, it was interesting, fresh and had... you know, an _it_ tone to it . On top of it all, he had given us the freedom to choose how to work, at least until the presentation takes place and he sees what we had planned for it.

 

***

When I woke up on presentation day I instantly noticed the day felt different. Could've been the smell of the spring dancing in the air or the fact that the skies were a placid blue. It could've been the fact that it was Friday. Or it could've been the feeling I couldn't shake off that we were gonna knock it out of the park with this pitching.

The sun was still rising when I got out of bed, that meant I had a few hours before heading to work. This past week I had spent so much time at Cap&Co HQ I have had little to none time to take care of my own house. As I went on with my regular morning routine I squeezed in some house chores that needed to be done as well. I made the bed and put the clothes that were thrown over the bench at the end of it on the laundry basket in the closet, which was already full to the top, and took it to the laundry nook. I separated the whites and delicates and threw everything else in the laundry machine. The laundry room was where I kept the heavy cleaning stuff, so as long as I was already there, I broke out the Roomba vacuum cleaner and programmed it to go off in 30 minutes. Although it was hysterical when the Roomba started cleaning with Tripod around I normally preferred to take him out while it was working just to avoid the barking symphony.

I opened the blender lid and threw two kale ices, a slice of pineapple, a chopped banana, little bit of ginger and lemon juice. While I blended my green smoothie, I managed to get all the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and put them away, just to fill it again with the dirty ones that had piled up everywhere. Changed the trash bin, piled all the trash bags (including the bathroom ones) by the door and cleaned the kitchen island and lower cabinets granite countertops with a cotton cloth dampened with warm water. By the time I had finished my beverage, I was a lot happier with how the house looked.

"Ready to go?" I asked Tripod.

He waggled his tail and happily jumped his way to his corner to get his leash. He was a three legged dog and that meant walking a little different. I returned to the master bedroom to change and brush my teeth. The day was hotter than the rest of the week had been and I could finally wear some shorts. Put on my workout shoes, grabbed my bag, pulled my hair back in a bun and headed to the door. Tri was already waiting next to the pile of trash with hopeful eyes, his tail wiping the floor as it moved rapidly. I grabbed it all and stepped outside, Tri close on my heels carrying his leash on his mouth. Made a quick stop at the dumpster to throw out the trash and off to the elevator, where I took advantage of the ride to hook Tripod's NYC pizza leash on his matching collar and text Ava to let her know I was on my way.

Ava and I had a bootcamp everyday at a park nearby, except for when it rained or whenever we had to work late or early. Which had been the case for the past days. It was the first time we were going that week. I had enrolled Tripod in an agility class at the same park, right next to the bootcamp so I didn't have to leave him at the house. He had been alone too often with me having to work. Plus, that was a great way for him to get some energy off.

 

***

A couple of hours later, after working our butts out, picking Tri up and dropping Ava off at her house, I was back home, ready to head out again. I had already put the laundry in the drier, retrieved the clean dishes from the dishwasher and stored them in the cabinets and put the Roomba vacuum cleaner back at the laundry nook to recharge. I had also made scrambled eggs, which I ate with black coffee, showered, put my makeup on and got dressed for work.

Man, I was quick. I told you, there was something about that morning, an anticipation vibe to it and I just couldn't stay home doing chores anymore. I grabbed my black bucket bag and the car keys from the sideboard near the door and took off. As soon as I stepped out, my phone vibrated on my pocket and I reached to see the message.

 _"won't be able to make it before 5 today. Is it cool?"_ It took me a few seconds to process what was that about when it buzzed again in my hand. _"it's Ed by the way x"_ I smiled to the screen and typed a response.

 _"Sure, see you then x"_.

The elevator ride was useful. Lighting was brighter here and if my makeup was wrong somehow, it was going to show. Although, I had been doing it for so long, I rarely made a mistake with the tones. I took a look at my reflection in the mirror. I had tons of makeup on, but it looked like a fresh I-woke-up-like-this face. I looked down, my still wet dark chocolate long bob hair falling to my face, as I checked my outfit. I had on my white converse shoes, a high waisted blue distressed skinny jeans, a loose white blouse and black blazer with rolled up sleeves showing up the striped lining. If we closed the deal we were probably going to celebrate, so I chose something to wear that could go from day to night if came down to it and brought my black chunky heel sandals just in case.

When I got to the car, I threw my bag in the passenger's seat, put the sandals bag behind it and connected my phone to the radio. Music started playing randomly and, to my luck, it was _'Sorry'_ , by Justin Bieber. I swayed and sang along with it. Even though the lyrics were sad, the song felt hopeful to me and the feeling fitted just right. When I parked outside Cap&Co HQ songs had shuffled a few times and had landed on 'Same old love', by Selena Gomez, a few seconds ago. Coincidence is a funny thing. I unplugged the phone making sure it kept playing as I danced my way to the house.

Greeting a few team members as I passed and Kris at the kitchen, I entered the meeting room. This had been our office for the last days, so, along with the papers on Ed and our notes, our laptops, water bottles and everything we needed were at the table. I synced my phone to the wireless speaker and the song started playing a little louder. Ava got in a few minutes after and didn't ask me to turn it off. Music was fuel sometimes.

 

***

Ed got in right after five p.m., just like he had said he would. The team was less excited about having him at this point, the expectation had passed, but I had butterflies in my stomach like never before. The overwhelming feeling of anticipation and excitement had not left me since the moment I woke up. The truth was we had done everything we could and gave our best to this project. Now I just couldn't wait for him to hear it already, so we could start working.

We brought him to the meeting room, where he sat at the head at the table. Ava and I remained standing and went straight to business as she laid down a few basic starting points for the strategy.

"In these past days we've learned a lot about you and we tried to concentrate our efforts based on that, so it wouldn't disrupt so much from what you're already doing." She said. "The label at the moment is known as an Ed Sheeran's label and even though both brands are similar and can benefit from each other, we need to encourage them to shine separately so we can get where we want to" She pressed a button and the presentation slides being screened behind her suddenly matched what she was saying. "You saw a few leading words we had on the glass wall yesterday," She gestured towards the wall that still had all the writing on it, "and even helped us with some additional ones. From those, we picked three we thought best described Gingerbread Man Records. WWW: _Warm_ , _welcoming_ and _worldwide_. We built the whole strategy plan using these three words as guidance." She concluded.

"Good word choices." He said, looking at us attentively, absorbing everything we had to say. I could almost see the engines inside him working as he processed it all and carefully analysed how it would affect him. One of his many talents was for business, that was for sure.

"We will need to reposition Gingerbread a little." I told him. "Actually, position it, because what we thought for the label is not that much different of what you have been doing. We still want to keep that intimate/small company feeling to it, while it ascends and grow without necessarily having to be linked to your name all the time. That way we can get people focused on the artists, which has been the goal all along."

He nodded. So far so good, I thought. "This change is not gonna happen overnight, though." I continued. "We will need to work, specially on social media, to get the message across without really saying it. Think big, start small." I smiled. "So here's what we thought we could do..."

Ava and I explained the strategy plan to him item by item. He listened quietly, nodding his head, throwing in one or two questions every once in awhile. As we progressed, he planted a smirk in his face and kept it until the end.

Ava started explaining how we would kick off this new era for the label. "We will need to present to the world this desire for change somehow."

"We usually say that even when you're not trying to communicate something, you still are, so we figured the re-launching of the brand should be done by wittingly communicating our new statement." I said. "But a regular press release saying you dissociated Gingerbread from Warner UK would be too small and a regular launching event felt too out of place."

"So we _cap'd_ things up a little and came up with..." Ava clicked the button and once again the screen behind her changed "the Gingerbread Man Hunt." She said joyfully.

"We'll increase awareness of the brand through a fun, different event that could potentially engage people and still be true to our values." I paused for a second. "It'll be divided it in two stages: an actual hunt and a last minute audition. The hunt will consist in you walking around some specific locations around town and maybe pick a few good street artists. The last minute audition will consist of us tweeting a place and a time for the artists interested in performing without warning or preparation." I told him. "We'll hopefully choose a few from each group to be the finalists and they'll audition again, prepared this time, until we choose only one act."

"We thought it was good to communicate the partnership between us hosting the hunt here first, since we are a Vancouver company." Ava pitched in. "We have a lot of street artists here, actually. I'm constantly passing at least one on the subway, so this could be really successful."

"Yeah, we're starting here in Canada, but this is something that could easily escalate to other parts of the world, if you'd like to have artists with different musical background." I completed.

"I think that's brilliant." He reclined in his chair and said simply. "You thought of everything without compromising my vision and the principles I've tried to imprint in this label. You actually incorporated it in a very creative way. I'm impressed!" He paused. Ava and I seated back down, grinning from ear to ear. "Although I'm concerned about how a project that relies on community control can come together in such little time..."

"Oh, it's not! Since it's such a complex project, we'll set up a date and you'll need to come back, if that's ok." I explained.

"That's fine." He paused and, suddenly, his face lit up. "Can it be done in a month?"

I looked at Ava. "The first two stages can, I'm sure." I looked at him again. "Why?"

"So I can engage on the pool tournament." He smiled widely.

I laughed. "Consider it done."

"Now I just need to know how much would this cost me. You've said the goal is to get the label up and running, but by it's not yet, so I'll be paying for it myself." He waited.

A project like this would normally blow up a budget, but Ava and I had agreed in this case we should think big picture. We sat down, did some math and discussed what it would mean for the company. Finally we ended up landing on a fee that would only contemplate the basics for the project and Cap&Co would cover the rest.

There wasn't even a proper negotiation. I told him the number and his response was the best possible.

"Where do I sign?"

 

***

The presentation took about an hour, but after that Ed didn’t leave right away. Ava went to the kitchen to get some champagne and glasses and we were supposed to wait for her in the chilling room. Except that all of our teammates were in the backyard having what looked like an happy hour. It was usual for us to get together after work, specially on a Friday, and it looked like it had just begun, because everyone was still very quiet and sober. 

“Wanna join?” I looked over to Ed, pointing my head towards the yard and smiling.

“Sure” He smiled.

The glass door lead to the patio, that consisted in a large deck with a wooden bar to the right, a picnic wooden table in the middle, a seating area to the right with an outdoor fireplace, a sofa and a couple of lounge chairs. To the back there was the grill and a few chair swings hanging off the trees. I stepped out. 

“Hey guys. Say hi to our new client!” I told them with a huge grin.

They all cheered and raised their mugs.

“Hi everyone.” Ed responded timidly.

Ava arrived with three champagne glasses and a bottle. She gave Ed one and passed the others and the bottle to me.

“I’m gonna get more glasses.” She stated.

“No need!” One of the guys said, pouring down his drink. “There!”, he raised his mug and the rest followed one by one. Ed chuckled.

Ava got both of the glasses from my hand, I removed the foil wrapping around the bottle and untwisted the wire cage until it was out. I eased out the cork with a soft sigh and a discrete pop. Everyone cheered, some even screamed  _ ‘happy new year’ _ . With crackling, fizzing sounds, I poured a little bit of the cold champagne for each one, finishing it in my own glass. I set the bottle on the table in front of me and raised my glass.

“To Gingerbread” I said.

“To Gingerbread!” Everyone raised their glasses and took a sip.

“To working together” Ed completed looking at me.

“To working together!” We repeated and took another sip.

 

***

The picnic table seemed ordinary at naked eyes, but a couple of wooden laths on each side came off revealing a built-in cooler, which meant beer within reach. Our champagne glasses were empty for too long and we had been chugging beer after beer. Part of the team was already gone, but the party didn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. Someone had gotten the wireless speaker from the meeting room and put on music. At some point, a tequila bottle was put at the table with a thud.

“We’re doing shots!” I recognized the creative director’s voice. We were very lucky at our hirings.

“You keep a sealed tequila bottle in the office? You’re my kind of company.” Ed was laughing.

“I told you not to tell Kris what you liked… I’m pretty sure we have all kinds of alcohol in large quantities now.” Ava told him.

“You’re welcome!” Kris smiled from across the table.

“Again, my kind of company.” He said, raising his beer and emptying it in a gulp. “Let’s do this.” 

He opened the bottle while someone got a few shot glasses and put it on the table.

“Oh, no no no.” He said shaking his head, putting down the bottle and getting up. “We’re using the mugs!” And disappeared inside of the house.

It took a minute, but he came back with three mugs, two in one hand, one in the other, holding by the handle. He gave it to me and Ava and held one for himself. The rest had had their own since the champagne.

Mine had a drawing of a sad t-rex with  _ ‘if you’re happy and you know it clap your… oh!’ _ written on it. Ava’s was  _ ‘kinda pissed about not being a mermaid’ _ . I glanced at Ed’s and it said  _ ‘I’m not saying I’m Batman, I’m just saying no one ever saw us together in the same room’ _ . I instantly looked up at Ava and we both threw our heads back laughing. 

“I reckon I got it right then.” He smiled.

“Just right.” I replied still laughing.

He poured just enough tequila at each mug and raised his own. Everyone got to their feet and did the same. He was probably about to make a toast, but we had a tradition and overspoke him.

“Cheers to you and cheers to me, best friends we’ll always be and if by chance we disagree  _ fuck you _ and cheers to me!” We said in unison. He wiggled his head, flickered his mouth and emptied his glass as we did the same.

“We’ll have to have another one, ‘cause I didn’t get to do my toast.” He stated, already pouring some more tequila for everyone. We raised our glasses and this time we waited.

“Here’s to those who wish us well, and those who don’t, can go to hell.” He shouted.

I laughed heartily and shot the burning liquid down my throat.

“Irish saying?” Ava asked, with a grimacing face.

“Elaine Benes.” I looked at him smiling. He looked back at me, a little surprised that I had gotten the reference. I could see Ava was confused through the corner of my eyes, but I did not break the contact. 

“I think it’s time Ed sings for us.” Howie, the intern, suddenly shouted. 

“Me?” Ed asked, turning his eyes away to look at him. Maybe it was the two shots fault, but that definitely felt like lingering.

“Nothing personal, but everyone has to sing, man.”

I could see Ed still seemed puzzled.

“Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you we also have a karaoke machine in the chilling room?” I smiled innocently.

“And that we do karaoke contests every once in awhile?” Ava jumped in.

“And that every person has to sing?” Howie, the intern, finished.

“Oh, ok. But that means you’ll have to sing too, right?” Ed started to walk backward towards the glass door. He smiled, turn around and went inside.

“Lara and Ava do a sick performance, man. You should ask-” He followed him inside until we couldn’t hear him anymore.

I looked at Ava. “Who hired this guy?”

 

***

Karaoke machine was already in place and Howie, the intern, was setting everything up with the iPad so Ed could choose his song. I followed Ava to the kitchen where she served us both with a glass of water. The music playing outside stopped. Kris and a couple of other team members got inside and settled themselves on the couch, along with Howie, the intern, so they could watch. 

“Ed, just so you know, we have a few rules.” I said from the kitchen, a little loud so he could hear. He looked up from the iPad screen where he was searching for a song. “First,” I raised my thumb for visual purpose “you cannot, by any chance, take this seriously. Second,” I raised my index finger “everyone that knows the song is obliged to sing along, and third,” I raised the middle finger “it has to be a performance, you can’t just sing.”

“Yes, ma’am” He smiled and gave his imaginary hat a tip.

My eyes landed at a fruit basket on the countertop. I picked a lemon up and threw it at Ava. She was caught off guard, but was able to hold it and smiled at me. We danced around as each one of us reached for an ingredient for the  _ caipirinhas _ were making. We finished mixing it right when we heard the first chords coming off the speakers.

_‘I can almost see it / That dream I’m dreaming, but…’_ Ed was kneeled down, an arm straightened like he was trying to touch something. Ava and I ran to the chilling room, our mugs in our hands, and stood behind the couch to sing along.

_ ‘There’s  _ _ a voice inside my head saying / You'll never reach it’ _ His voice was soft and he shaked his hands no.

_ ‘Every step I'm taking / Every move I make, feels / Lost with no direction…’  _ He put his hand on his heart. _ ‘My faith is shaken’ _ , he clenched his wrist and looked down.  _ ‘But I, gotta keep trying / Gotta keep my head held high’  _ H _ e stood up. _

“C’mon!” I yelled and threw my hands in the air, careful not to spill the drink I was holding.

_ ‘There's always gonna be another mountain / I'm always gonna wanna make it move / Always gonna be an uphill battle / Sometimes I'm going to have to lose’ _ Ed’s hands and expressions mimicked the feeling.  _ ‘Ain't about how fast I get there / Ain't about what's waiting on the other siiiiide / It's the climb!’ _ Cheering and howls erupted from the crowd.

And by crowd I mean Kris, a couple of team members, Howie, the intern, Ava and I. Still, we made some noise.

_ ‘Keep on moving, k _ _ eep climbing / Keep the faith, baby / It's all about / It's all about the climb!’ _ He was delivering some serious Mariah moves.  _ ‘Keep the faith / Keep your faaaaith’ _ He did a crazy run at the end and finished strong by keeping his head down and looking up over the mic. Crowd went nuts!

“You’re gonna have some serious trouble topping that!” Howie, the intern, pointed at us, stating cheerfully.

“Seriously, who hired this guy?” This time it was Ava asking me.

We moved to the front of the couch while Ed moved towards the back of it.

“That was an awesome debut. A round of applause to our new client, ladies and gentleman.” I said on the microphone and clapped my hands along with everyone else, a muffled sound coming from the mic at each clap.

Ed waved from the kitchen and walked to the mug wall. I turned to Ava to discuss about what song we were doing and, when I turned back, he was walking back to the sofa and seating on it, right in front of us. His mug now read _ ‘there’s a chance this might be vodka’ _ . I smiled as he took a sip.

“Ok, all set. We’ll try our best to top you, Ed.” Ava said on the other mic and we assumed position. It was a supposed duet and we had never rehearsed this, but we knew the song (and the video) by heart and we had the habit of making this kind of things work. She leaned in to press play on the iPad that was on the TV stand behind her. We had set the karaoke machine to also play the music video on the large screen behind us while we sang. That way, although we weren’t going to be looking at it, who was sitting on the couch would be able to, if they wanted. 

The video started playing along with the first notes and Ed grinned as he recognized it.

_ ‘Yeah-eah-eah’ _ Ava sang.  _ ‘You are my fire / The one’ _ She raised her index finger and her eyebrows,  _ ‘desire’ _ I stood behind her with my legs spread apart looking to the floor, just like Nick Carter in the first scene of the video.  _ ‘Believe, when I say…’ _ She put her hand in her heart as I started walking to the front.  _ ‘I want it that way’ _

_ ‘But we’ _ I opened my arm to the side watching the moment when Ava turned into what it would be AJ and hit the air as the beat started,  _ ‘are two worlds apart / Can't reach to your heart’ _ I was doing my best impersonation of a boy band blond guy,  _ ‘when you say’ _ I smiled a corky mouth-to-the-side smile and pointed to the ground.  _ ‘I want it that way’ _

I looked to the horizon:  _ ‘tell me why’ _ . Ava pitched in:  _ ‘ain't nothin' but a heartache’ _ . I pointed to Kris:  _ ‘tell me why’ _ . Ava was now impersonating Kevin and his unique dance moves:  _ ‘ain't nothin' but a mistake / Tell me why’. _ My turn:  _ ‘I never wanna hear you say’ _ . Howie, the intern, jumped up in front of us:  _ ‘I want it that way’ _ . Everyone laughed, even us.

Ava was back to being AJ,  _ ‘Am I your fire? / Your one desire?’ _ I was mimicking the lyrics as Brian normally does and Howie, the intern, just stood there... pretty much like real Howie.  _ ‘Yes I know’ _ She did all the runs he did  _ ‘it's too late / But I want it that way / Tell me why!’ _

_ ‘Ain't nothin' but a heartache’ _ I sang as we (except for Howie) started the choreography and I could hear everyone goes like ‘whaaaat?’. Ava sang:  _ ‘teeeell me why’ _ . We were still dancing:  _ ‘ain't nothin' but a mistake / Tell me why’ _ . Ava again:  _ ‘I never wanna hear you say / I want it that way’ _ .

Of course, I had to be Kevin. I raised my hand 90 degrees from my body and put up a deadly serious facial expression and walked forward:  _ ‘Now I can see that we've fallen apart / From the way that it used to be’ _ . Everyone sang together:  _ ‘yeah’ _ . 

As the song was getting to the end, Ava and I were getting more excited. We both sang  _ ‘no matter the distance / I want you to know’ _ , we turned to look at each other,  _ ‘That deep down inside’  _ we both opened our arms _ ‘of meeeee…’ _ .

We reached for Howie, the intern. We put our mics in front of him, it was his time to shine. He turned straight ahead  _ ‘You are my fire’ _ , he put his finger in the air,  _ ‘The one desire’ _ . He opened his hands to the public,  _ ‘You are’ _ . Ava and I pulled back the mics and pointed to our teammates at the couch in front of us,  _ ‘You are, you are, YOU ARE…’ _ , that last one was supposed to reach a higher note and I sang it while pressing one ear with my finger, I must admit.

_ ‘Don't wanna hear you saaaaaaaaay, yeah, yeah, yeah’ _ When someone knows the runs each boyband member does, that’s how you know she’s a fan  _ ‘Ain't nothin' but a mis-DON’T WANNA HEAR YOU / I never wanna hear you say -OH YEAH / I want it that way’  _ And we both knew all the runs.

We turned into all of them:  _ ‘Tell me why / Ain't nothin' but a heartache’ _ , we both copied Nick shaking his finger no.  _ ‘Tell me why’ _ We both spinned around like Brian.  _ ‘Ain't nothin' but a mistake / Tell me why’ _ We both did all the AJ moves.  _ ‘I never wanna hear you-DON’T WANNA HEAR YOU SAY’ _ We both sang like Nick.

_ ‘I want it thaaaat way. Tell me whyyyyy’ _ We were back to being Brian.  _ ‘Ain't nothin' but a mistake / Tell me why’ _ We stretched our hands and pretended the guys at the couch were fans.  _ ‘I never wanna hear you-NEVER WANNA HEAR YOU SAY / I want it that way’ _

We looked at each other and finished it like a real romantic duet:  _ ‘Cause I want it that way’ _ , perfectly in sync.

And that, my friends, is how we got a standing ovation on a karaoke contest with Ed Sheeran.


	4. Chapter Four (or One of Those Nights)

The morning after a getting shitface drunk was always hard. My head was pounding, my mouth was dry and my body felt heavy. Before even opening my eyes, I knew I wasn’t in my room. I had a king size bed, this was a single. I sat up slowly, trying not worsen the headache, and opened my eyes carefully, afraid of where I was going to find myself in. I heaved a sigh of relief as I recognized Ava’s spare room. Kicking aside the covers, I got off the bed and looked at the pajamas I was wearing. It was one of the tee and short sets I left at Ava’s for exactly this kind of occasion.

As I crawled myself to the kitchen, highlights from the night before started to resurface. The presentation, popping the champagne, the shots… oh, the shots! They’re the whole reason I was a mess.

“Morning” Ava growled when I passed her on my way to the fridge. She was seating on the island stool, facing the kitchen, holding her head in both hands, a cup of coffee resting in front of her.

“Why do we do this to ourselves?” I got my water bottle and drank half of it in a gulp. “What I am doing here, by the way? Why didn’t I go home?”

“You were driving” She said as if it was an obvious response.

“My house is like two blocks from here. I could’ve just, you know, kept going…” I emptied the bottle and filled it again.

“I don’t know, we were both drunk and we thought it was a good idea” She was still holding her head, staring at the cup of coffee.

“Hey, you have any Advil? Feels like there’s a dwarf with a baseball bat inside my head banging and banging non-stop” I ran my hands through my face.

“Bathroom drawer” She pointed behind her with the least possible effort.

A strike of pain hit my head with each step I took as I dragged myself up the stairs, using the dark bannister to propel myself up. The master bedroom was at the end of the hallway, which felt like miles long considering the hungover state I was in. I walked through the room, the navy wall behind the bed and closed shades soothing the pain temporarily. Master bathroom was to the left of the room, across from the closet. The french doors were open and the herringbone tile floor contrasted against the bathtub, placed by the window at the corner of the room. To the right there was the walk-in shower and toilet and to the left the double sink with white footed cabinetry. I opened the second drawer (just because that’s where I kept medicine in my own house) and there it was, our saviour Advil.

The room I considered my own was on the far right of the upstairs hallway, passing two other rooms and right in front of the guest bedroom. I had woken up so desperately eager for water that I had forgotten to take my phone with me. There was no way I was coming up here again soon - at least until my headache was gone - and I evaluated the fact I was close enough to get it now. It was beneath the pillows, just where I normally put it when I went to bed, but it was dead, of course. I had the wisdom to put on my PJs, but not to charge the phone.

I went back down the stairs, the sound of my steps muffled by the black and white striped runner. On my way back, I popped the pills out of the pack one by one and put two beside Ava’s mug, swallowing two myself, with a sip of her coffee. In a moment we would feel better, I was positive.

We moved on to the couch and I plugged my phone and the charger at the outlet below the side table while Ava turned Netflix on.

“Eric’s competing?” I asked as I sprawled myself on the couch. I vaguely remembered her saying something about a competition coming soon, but the hangover made me lethargic and I couldn’t recall all the details at the time.

“Yeah. He flew out to Seoul a few days ago. Tournament started yesterday.” She told me while flicking through the catalog.

“Seoul? Nice.”

Eric was a professional video game player for a team called Bob Ross Fan Club. They trained crazy hours a week and went around the world competing for a game called Heroes of the Storm. Or you could just say he had the coolest job in the world. 

My phone lit up and lazily returned to life. It buzzed as soon as it got to lock screen and I reached for it. 

“Ava,” I asked calmly as a Friends episode started playing “why the hell is Ed asking if we’re still up for tonight? What does he mean by  _ still _ ?” I looked at her confused.

“Why would I kno-OH MY GOD! The charity thing!” She covered her mouth with her hand in an amusing shock.

“What charity thing?” I was on the edge of the couch looking at Ava.

“I think…” She put her hand on her temple “I think he said something about a charity ball concert last night and invited us to come.”

“And did we say yes?” I asked, knowing the answer already.

“Everything is kinda blurry, but I think we did. OH MY GOD LARA, we said yes!” She got up and was now freaking out.

“How could we say yes? Is it black tie? What are we going to wear?” Now I was up and freaking out too.

“Ok… Ok, we can do this.” Ava was pacing from one side of the room to the other. She stopped and pointed at me. “Text him back and ask for details.”

I sat back down and reached for the phone once more. “I can’t say I was too drunk to remember making plans, can I?”

She started pacing across the room again. “No… No, you’re gonna ask him plain and straight if it’s a black tie event, where and what time we need to be there.”

I did as she told me to and placed the phone back on the table. “I feel like a teenager waiting for him to respond.” I said, after a few seconds, rubbing my hands together and rocking myself back and forth.

Suddenly, it hit me. “Ava, he asked us out. Ed asked us out!”

She turned to me. “Oh my God, he asked us out.” She half laughed, half howled as I got up and we both started jumping up and down. “This is insane!”

“I don’t care! He asked us out!” I started a happy dance and she instantly followed me.

The phone buzzed and we froze in the middle of a couple of really awkward dance moves, inspired by the best dancers we knew: fat Monica Geller and teenager Rachel Green. We looked at each other for a second and ran for the phone at the same time. We fell seated on the couch, knocking our heads together as we both tried to look at the screen.

I read it out loud: “ _ you don’t recall making any plans, do you? _ ”

Ava looked at me. “Shit!”

The phone beeped one more time: “ _ it’s all right, it took me some time to remember as well _ ”, and seconds later: “ _ it’s a fundraiser to support mental health treatments, at the teahouse in stanley park, it starts at 6:30 and i’m hoping it’s black tie coz it’s either that or sweats for me. I reckon sweats might not fit the occasion, though… _ ”

“It’s black tie! Ava, seriously, what are we going to wear?”

 

***

Ava and I almost never had an event like this and neither of us owned black tie gowns. We had limited choices and, in such short notice, we were making the best with what we had. And what we had was a David’s Bridal, thirty minutes away from Ava’s place. We knew the store would be nuts inside, being a weekend and the spring sale week, but chances were we could walk out of there with a nice dress for a modest price.

“What do we say to those Marchesa dresses we dream about?”, I said.

“Not today, satan!” Ava responded. I shared the bitterness of those words. 

We were greeted by a saleswoman when we got to the store, but ended up making our own way through the aisles. We picked up a few options, asked for our size and went to the fitting room in the back. There was a private sitting area outside the booth with a champagne bottle on an ice bucket. We served ourselves a glass each and were already feeling pretty royal when the saleswoman brought back what we asked for in our sizes.

I was the first one trying and it didn’t take much to find something I liked. I hated shopping, I was more like the seating outside champagne-drinking kind of girl who gave her friends clothing advice. That’s why I was very practical and quick at it. Ava, on the other hand, was not.

She disappeared and walked out with option #1. It wasn’t the best. She changed to option #2. Still wasn’t the best. She repeated it a few more times and, by my third glass, she came out with the perfect navy blue dress and a huge grin on her face. She troutted through the room like she was on a runway and stepped on the mini stage at the center.

“I feel like I’m trying my wedding dress!” She stated checking herself at the mirror.

“Except that this one matches your bedroom wall colour.” I laughed. “But it’s gorgeous. You have to take this one!”

After grabbing some lunch at Tim Horton’s a few hours later, we drove back to my house, a couple of hundred dollars poorer. Ava had even got a pair of shoes and earrings.

She had brought her own makeup, since our skins had different tones, and we were set to start getting ready. We showered, did our hair and shared the vanity table for the makeup ritual.

It was nearly six p.m. which meant we had to leave soon. I put the brush down, took another close look at the mirror and decided my makeup was done. I marched to the closet and was taking off my kimono robe when Ava got in. We changed into our garments, put on our jewelry and shoes and got the essentials we were going to carry in our clutches. 

When we were ready, I called a cab. “It says ten minutes” 

Ava and I were looking at the final result in the mirror. Ava’s tortoiseshell hair was pulled back with a braid in one side and loose curls on the other. Her makeup was Adele inspired with a smokey brown cut crease, light rosé shade on the lid and a champagne touch on the inner corner of her eyes finished with dramatic winged eyeliner, faux lashes and a natural nude lipstick. She was wearing the navy blue floor-sweeping dress, with a deep-V plunging neckline and open back that she had bought earlier. The gown had a mid-thigh side slit on the fluid pleating A-line skirt and a cinched waist. She combined it with an emerald green statement earring, gold clutch and heels.

I, on the other hand, had chosen a white long-sleeved jumpsuit with a black strap cinched waist, seamed pockets on the side and black rhinestones embellishments at the neck that looked like falling stars, as it was fuller at the square neckline and faded towards the waist. My hair was up in a high tight bun and the makeup was Kim Kardashian style, contoured and highlighted, with smokey brown eyes, flirty faux lashes and red lips. I was wearing a small black earring, multiple rings, black Nudist single band heels and a 3D geometric black hard clutch.

My phone beeped, letting us know the car was close. We said goodbye to Tripod and headed out. The ride was quick; we chatted too much to pay attention. When we realized, the cab was pulling over outside the Teahouse. 

The concierge opened the car door for us and the Teahouse rose in front of me as I got out of the car, Ava right behind me. It was all lit up with yellow lights, making it a million times more beautiful. We crossed the front porch and the hostess at the front table greeted us. We gave our names and she guided us through the stone path that led to the east wing of the building where the party was being held. 

As soon as we got inside the glass parlor, we knew this wasn’t a traditional charity ball. Another hostess guided us through the crowd as an upbeat background song played. Even though it was only ten minutes past six thirty, the salon was full of people and reverberating life. Almost all of the guests were up, talking and laughing, and a lot of them were wearing costume accessories like pirate hats, huge glasses, beards and masks. We got to the six seater round table near the small stage and noticed that instead of centerpieces there was a tall glass vase with some of the accessories we had seen people wearing. 

“Dude. I get to be a princess!” I got a huge crown and a sparkle magic wand and smiled at Ava.

“A magical princess!” She laughed as I put on my crown and dug in the glass to find her own costume. She pulled a green hat and elf ears up and looked at me wide-eyed. 

“Oh. My. God!” I chuckled, looking around as she put it on. I walked over to a table nearby and asked the standing group to get one of their gear. When I got back to our table, I stretched both of my arms in front of me with my palms up, the plastic object laying on top of them. “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.” I bowed as I gave her the sword.

She took it from my hands and held it up high, pointing to the sky. Right at that second, a superman waiter approached us. 

“Have I interrupted the coronation?” A capitain america Ed asked with a smirk.

“Not at all!” I smiled at him. “It was a sword ceremony.”

“Oh, my mistake” He smiled back. “Care for some whisky?” He waved his shield, which he was using as the tray. 

“Care to explain about this awesome ball?” I replied as we each got a glass. He added ice and poured some liquid in it.

“It’s for the Citizens Counselling Centre which is an institution that provides affordable counselling for adults here in Canada. Happens annually around april’s fool day and the they raise money while making fun of us.”

“Fun!” I said.

“Innit? Glad you’re here to see this. I have to make other people happy with this beauty”, he made a gesture with his head towards the tray, “but I’ll see you in a bit.”

He mingled with the crowd and we sat down. We chatted for a long time, not really knowing what to do next. Since we never been to an event like that, we didn’t even know how to donate. Our table had a few purses on it and a coat hanging on the back of one of the chairs, but there was no one sitting there beside us. I guess people knew each other and were around the room socializing.

A few celebrity waiters passed by our table serving food and beverages. I knew they were famous, but didn’t really know what for. I just knew they were Canadian, so probably hockey players. So far, Ed was the only widely well known face. Ava got a glass from one of the passing trays and put the other one aside. She wasn’t a whisky kind of girl.

“Oh my God! Is that Alanis?” I gasped and grabbed Ava’s arm, almost knocking the red wine glass she was holding.

“What Alanis?” She asked changing hands on the glass.

“Do you know more than one?”

“Oh my God, it’s Alanis!” She grabbed my arm back. “Lara, it’s Alanis Morissette! And Ed’s here. I swear, if they sing together, I’m gonna die!”

 

***

Alanis Morissette came up to our table dressed as wonder woman and offered us some parmesan canape.

“These are really great, you should try it.” She said when she lowered the tray in front of us.

Just like with Ed, we would’ve accepted anything she was serving. As we were thanking her, a voice asked for our attention.

“Thank God, this tray is heavy!” She said, mostly to herself, and walked backstage.

An elegant older woman was at the center of the stage welcoming everyone through the microphone. She looked a little bit like Carolina Herrera with short blonde hair, a classic black pencil skirt, a chic silk blouse, red scarpins and a statement necklace.

“This is where it gets interesting.” Ed’s voice came from behind us and he sat at the chair right next to me, the closest to the stage, putting a glass of whisky on the rocks in front of him. Ava was on my other side.

“You’re done waitressing?” I asked him.

“For now, I think. I don’t really know the whole program, just the highlights.”

“Are you the only non-canadian celebrity here?”

“Yeah. It was a very last minute thing, actually, I wasn’t really invited.”

“How come?”

“Well, Alanis tweeted something about a celebrity fooling fundraiser and I thought it could be fun, so I emailed her volunteering to help. She said normally there were only canadian celebrities, but I was welcome to come.” He kept playing with his glass. “She only found out about it a month ago and invited herself. I reckon it was not until she did that they had a real canadian star.” He took a sip.

“Are you guysgonna singing?” Ava asked grinning.

“Guess we’ll have to find out.” He replied emptying his glass and getting up. He disappeared through a door leading backstage.

The elegant lady was explaining how to make a donation with the envelope in front of each seat. As she spoke, I opened my purse and got the corporate cheque book I had brought. Ava and I quickly decided on a generous amount and I filled it. We wanted to help as individuals too, so we broke out our own cheque books and each filled with a few thousand dollars and put it on separated envelopes. We followed her instructions as to how to seal it and handled it to a grey-headed Thor. I found out later that was Trevor Linden.

Carolina look-alike started calling out a few celebrities to do some sort of number on stage. Some were already in the salon and just climbed to the stage and others came from the back. A group dressed as the Village People lip synced and danced to ‘YMCA’, another person did an impersonating stand up comedy show and two more dressed as the couple from Juno reenacted the ‘ _Anyone Else But You’_ scene with a parody about being fooled in a fundraiser. The mood was casual, people were laughing and interacting with each other and the artists while watching the show and contributing to an excellent cause.

“As you know, we hold this ball annually.” Herrera started “This year we had a very pleasant surprise when of the most famous stars in the country contacted us and very selflessly asked to join us tonight. Please put your hands together for Alanis Morissette.” She called Alanis to the stage.

She got up the stage. The crowd cheered hard and I laughed out loud as I realized who she was dressed like.

“Who is she?” Ava asked.

“Robin Sparkles!” I told her, my wand flying everywhere as I moved my hand. She still looked puzzled. “‘How I met your mother’ Robin Sparkles?” She laughed as she also realized the pun intended.

Alanis hugged the lady as they met on the middle of the stage, one entering and the other leaving it.

“Thank you.” She said when people calmed down. “I just liked to say that I’m honoured to be here and that I’m having a blast. So thank you for having me.” Another round of applause erupted. She waited for it to die down and continued. “I’d like to call a very special person who also volunteered,” Ava and I grabbed each other’s hands nervous from the anticipation, “to be here tonight. Please welcome, Ed Sheeran.” She turned to the right side of the stage and clapped her hands together, smiling.

Ed got into the room and climbed the stairs. As Justin Bieber. Crowd went nuts. People didn’t know whether to laugh or cheer.

“Whazzup guys?” He flipped his head. “Thank you for letting me be here.” He gestured his hand forward and rested it in his belly. He was wearing a white shirt, baggy jeans, a backwards baseball cap and a pair of checkerboard Vans. “I hope you guys are having some fun tonight!”

The crowd cheered some more as the staff brought two microphone pedestals and two guitars, one with a plus sign sticker. Ava tightened her grip on my arm. They put on the guitars and arranged the height of the microphone.

“Ok, we had little time to rehearse, so let’s just see how it goes.” Alanis said, looking at Ed.

They counted and started playing at the same time.

‘ _Ohh wooaah_ ’ Alanis started singing as the melody of an acoustic version of Justin’s song _‘Baby’_ came together. _‘You know you love me, I know you care’_ Alanis went on until the end of the first verse.

_‘Are we an item? Girl quit playing’_ Ed took care of the second one. ‘ _And I was like /… Baby, baby, baby oooh_ ’ they both sang the chorus.

Throughout the song people got up and danced their way to the front of the stage, clapping to the rhythm. Ava and I were already in the first row, so we just got up. The room turned into one huge dance floor as the guests and the celebrities sang along.

“Thank you very much!” Alanis said when the song came to an end and the crowd cheered. She placed her guitar at the holder beside her and looked at Ed. ‘ _I want you to know that I’m happy for you_ ’ She sang and he followed with the guitar, ‘ _I wish nothing but the best for you both_ ’. Ed started playing more aggressively, _‘An older version of me / Is she perverted like me? / Would she go down on you in of theater?’_ Alanis kept singing _, ‘Does she speak eloquently / And would she have your baby / I'm sure she'd make a really excellent mother’._

Ed jumped in: ‘ _Cause the love that you gave that we made / Wasn't able to make it enough for you to be open wide, no / And every time you speak her name / Does she know how you told me you'd hold me / Until you died, 'til you died_ ’ He stopped playing as they both sang together, ‘ _but you're still alive_ ’.

Ava and I were singing the lyrics and jumping up and down along with everyone. Not only were we watching Ed Sheeran perform, but he was performing with Alanis Morissette, one of our favourite artists of all time. This was a piece of heaven for us.

‘ _You, you, you oughta knoooow_ ’. The song came to an end with a huge note from both of them.

They didn’t wait for the clapping to die out this time. ‘ _It's late in the evening…_ ’ Ed started. Everyone sang alongs, hands in the air. Ava and I forgot how to behave ball-appropriately. It was like we were at a real concert. We sang our lungs out, danced and slowly contaminated everyone around us to do the same. Ed looked at us and smiled when he proclaimed ‘ _SING!_ ’. We obeyed. And sang. Louder.

Alanis took the microphone out of the stand and pitched in. ‘ _This love is ablaze / I saw flames from the side of the stage / And the fire brigade comes in a couple of days_ ’ She sang the whole rap moving around the stage as only her knows how to do. Ed was laughing and playing his guitar nonchalantly. ‘ _I need you darling / Come on set the tone_ ’ He sang in his high voice.

The song came to an end with one last ‘ _SING!_ ’ both of them shouted together. They smiled at the crowd, mumbled a _thank you_ and Ed started singing again. ‘ _I had no choice but to hear you_ ’ He played along with the guitar and smiled at Alanis who was looking down, tapping the beat on her legs, mouthing the words to her own song. ‘ _You treat me like I’m a princess_ ’ She rose the microphone, ‘ _I’m not used to liking that_ ’.

That was one of my favourite songs of all times and yet I couldn’t sing along, as the rest of the people were doing. I was mesmerized with what I was seeing. Ed singing with his eyes closed, Alanis doing the hand thing rocking herself at the same spot, a room full with lit up cellphones, people moving to the beat lost in their own world, couples dancing together. I looked around, bewitched by the joyful atmosphere. When I turned back to the stage, Ed’s eyes locked with mine. ‘ _You’ve already won me over in spite of me_ ’ He smiled that wry smile breaking the contact when he closed his eyes and went back into his trance.

‘ _Thanks for your patience_ ’ Alanis sang. All of a sudden Ed took a harmonica from his pocket and played the entire solo. Crowd howled and cheered and even Alanis seemed surprised.

“Two days ago he told me he was gonna do my harmonica solo and I didn’t believe him” She said when the song came to an end. He was laughing. “He couldn’t even play two days ago!” She was amused and Ed looked a little embarrassed. “You know I can play it too, right?” She took her own harmonica out from Robin Sparkle’s denim jacket pocket and wobbled it in the air, smiling at him.

She put it in her mouth and, still looking at Ed, and blew the first a capella verse of ‘ _I See Fire_ ’. When she finished, he followed on the guitar. They sang the chorus together. Ed sang the last line alone, ‘ _And I hope that you remember me_ ’, and Alanis interpose with the harmonica.

He smiled through the whole song, sometimes looking stupefy at Alanis and the harmonica, sometimes looking at the crowd singing along. It was a smaller crowd than usual, but these people weren’t fans. They were enjoying the music, not him. It was very different from what he was used to.

Alanis got her guitar from the holder, put it on and played vigorously along with Ed - ‘ _And if the night is burning / I will cover my eyes_ ’ they sang. At the last chorus, Ed sang while Alanis had some fun with the sidelines.

They hugged once it was over and exchanged a few words that we couldn’t hear before turning to the crowd and thanking. Both of them motioned to get out of the stage, but the cheering was so loud that they looked at each other.

“I reckon we can sing one more song” Ed said back on the microphone, eyes on Alanis.

“I think we can” She responded, smiling.

He began to play the firsts chords to ‘ _Photograph_ ’ making the crowd cheer louder. When the lyrics were supposed to start, he sang: ‘ _For all the times that you rained on my parade_ ’. I looked at Ava with my jaw dropped, yet I was still smiling. We both howled and started dancing. ‘ _Maybe you should know that…_ ’

‘ _It’s like rain on your wedding day / It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid_ ’ Alanis sang. She straightened the guitar ‘ _Who you’ve thought it figures_ ’.

_‘Loving can heal / Loving can mend your soul’_ Ed sang while Alanis played along. _‘We take with us when we die…_ ’

‘ _Cause if you like the way you look that much / Oh baby you should go and love yourself_ ’ both of them sang together. ‘ _And if you think that I’m still holdin’ on to somethin’ / You should go and love yourself_ ’.

‘ _A traffic jam when you’re already late..._ ’, Alanis sang, ‘ _And isn’t it ironic… Don’t you think / A little too ironic… And yeah I really do think..._ ’

‘Oh you can fit me / Inside the necklace you got / When you were sixteen...’ Ed sang, ‘ _Wait for me to come home / Wait for me to come home / Wait for me to come home / Wait for me to come home…’_

_‘Everybody come and play’_ just when I thought the cheering couldn’t get any louder, Alanis sang Robin Sparkle’s #1 hit ‘ _Let’s go to the mall… Today._ ’

_‘Cause if you like the way you look that much’,_ Ed was back being Justin Bieber, ‘Still holding on to something _/ You should go and love yourself’._

‘When I’m away…’ this time Alanis was being Ed. ‘ _Wait for me to come home_ ’ they finished together, both half turned to each other.

That round of applause was the loudest and for a crowd that was cheering almost non-stop that was saying a lot. They thanked, bowing, and went off the stage. A staff member got their guitars, while they chatted and took pictures with a few people. People slowly went back to their seats and background music started playing again.

Ava and I got back to our tables and she got her phone from her purse as I sat down. A waiter passed serving whisky and I refilled my glass.

“Oh my God, Eric’s team is playing right now! I gotta go.” She got her clutch and shoved the phone inside. “Can you thank Ed for me?”

“Sure! Let me know how it went when you can.” I told her as we hugged and within seconds she was out.

Another waiter came by and I got a couple of canapes.

“Was that Ava leaving?” Ed sat next to me, putting his glass on the table. He was dressed like himself again, with black trousers, white shirt, black vest and a slim black tie.

“Yeah, her boyfriend - sorry, fiancé - is having a huge match. She went home to watch.”

“Is he an athlete?”

“Kinda.” I chuckled, “He’s a professional video game player and his team is playing at a tournament at this second.”

“That must be an awesome job” He looked at his glass. I laughed. That was a funny statement coming from him. He looked at me again, frowning. “Wanna get outta here too?”

“Can you leave?”

He looked at the watch in his wrist.

“Think so, Alanis left already”.

I grabbed my clutch.

“Let’s go, then” I said with a smile.

We made our way to the backstage door. He informed he was leaving to the elegant older lady, who, as he introduced me, I came to know was the director of the Citizens Counselling Centre and the event planner. He thanked and briefly hugged the lady and I shook her hand when we said our goodbyes.

Ed guided me through the back exit and I got my phone to call a cab.

“No need, I have a car” He put his and in my arm as he realized what I was about to do.

“But you drank.”

“I mean I have a car with a _chauffeur_.” He emphasised the last word with a pout.

I laughed. “Fancy! And where are we going?” I asked as we walked to the car that had just pulled over.

“You tell me, you’re the local one.” He said opening the door for me. The _chauffeur_ had gotten out, but he did it anyway.

“Are you hungry?” I hold the car door and turned to face him, my shoulder brushing his chest.

“Starving, actually.” His eyes met mine and they had a sparkle that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“Great, I know just the place.”

And I got into the car.


End file.
